Senran Kagura Burst

 3DS
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 72 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 44 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 72
  3. Negative: 15 out of 72
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  1. OscarZXN
    May 28, 2017
    5
    Senran Kagura Burst was a massive dissapointment for me. Even considering the not that great reviews, this game has 5/5 stars on the eshop (many of my favorite games have just 4.5) and I have seen may people that love this franchise. I don't know about the VS games on PS consoles, maybe they are great, but this 3DS title is very mediocre and it could have been better easily.

    The biggest    Senran Kagura Burst was a massive dissapointment for me. Even considering the not that great reviews, this game has 5/5 stars on the eshop (many of my favorite games have just 4.5) and I have seen may people that love this franchise. I don't know about the VS games on PS consoles, maybe they are great, but this 3DS title is very mediocre and it could have been better easily.

    The biggest problem are not the mechanichs, because they are actually pretty decent, fast and easy to make; they are not amazing, but for a beat em up, they have the job done, however, the missions are incredibly boring, uninteresting and repetitive. You have just 2 type of missions, beat many enemies or beat one of the girls in 1 vs 1 battle . At the beggining they are okay, but later they are always the same but just longer and longer and longer, without any interesting change or great boss battle, the game is the same over and over and that killed it for me, because when i see a beat em up or a hack and slach, i expect a game short but direct or a game while longer, has many different enemies or epic boss fights.

    Aside from that, the game doesn't have that much fanservice as I thought, it is actually more story foused, with really long cutscenes, The problem with the story is that it's presented in a very boring way, with just pages and pages of text most of the time, and the text that it presents is not that interesting tbh and I really don't want to waste my time reading it.

    Senran Kagura is not the worst game i have played, it doesn't look bad, the music is generic but ok and it can be fun at the beginning, but the missions structure is so boring and repetitive that turn what it could have been a pretty decent game into a snore fest.    … Expand
  2. Trepadora
    Apr 4, 2014
    5
    Senran Kagura isn't a particularly deep or compelling game, evidently, as the front cover consists of a faceless pair of breasts and not much else. Sadly, that is an all too accurate picture of the game itself - the game's main drawing point is fanservice alone with a lackluster beat 'em up underneath.

    Though the story may seem like it attempts to be something interesting at times, it    Senran Kagura isn't a particularly deep or compelling game, evidently, as the front cover consists of a faceless pair of breasts and not much else. Sadly, that is an all too accurate picture of the game itself - the game's main drawing point is fanservice alone with a lackluster beat 'em up underneath.

    Though the story may seem like it attempts to be something interesting at times, it ultimately comes down to boring cookie-cutter drivel that ends before it really even starts. The characters are ultimately little more than two dimensional archetypes that were clearly designed with aesthetics in mind and a short 15 minute break for the actual personality the developers threw in at the last second.

    The gameplay is really the main issue here, though. While the initial spectacle and titillation may draw you in, don't be fooled. Before long, the basic game will devolve into simple button mashing through far too many side levels that drag on far too long. But even if you don't want to spend the time on the pointless side missions in favor of finishing the story, you'll have little choice as grinding is completely mandatory. Combined with all five characters being required to be used for certain missions, this means far too much time spent grinding up character levels through the same dull levels, with the same mind-numbing, repetitive gameplay.

    The difficulty is another issue. While for a good chunk of the game, it will pose absolutely no challenge, the game is prone to difficulty spikes. The final chapter in particular is filled with enemies with ranged projectiles which will lead to stunlock, and inevitably death, unless you've over-leveled enough to simply tank the damage or get lucky enough to avoid it. Nowhere is the difficulty more evident than the games 'Frantic mode', basically shedding your clothes for increased attack but decreased defense. For the first couple of chapters, this will be laughably easy. However, after you reach a certain point, you will die in a hit or two. Honestly, it seems like a cheap ploy for yet more tedious grinding.

    Ultimately, the game barely has anything going for it. It works (that is when the framerate isn't acting up, which is almost always) and that's about it. The titillation runs dry very fast, and all you'll be left with is a shallow, boring and frustrating experience.    … Expand
  3. Luxurious_Jake
    Feb 19, 2014
    7
    The gameplay is repetitive, there are framerate issues, the story is rather poor, and yet, somehow, I found it quite addictive. I shouldn't like this game, but I find that I keep coming back to it, there's something about the beat-em-up action that draws me in. If you don't mind the gratuitous t & a on display, it's actually quite fun.
  4. ryuzaki57
    Feb 2, 2014
    7
    A gaming UFO like Senran Kagura needs to be identified : it’s in fact a BTA with RPG elements (levels, stats, XP). Senran Kagura Burst is a second one that had been released in Japan, but as it contains the first game entirely , you're not missing anything.

    The various missions are quite repetitive and only the boss battle bring a little variety. Similarly, the gameplay is not as deep    A gaming UFO like Senran Kagura needs to be identified : it’s in fact a BTA with RPG elements (levels, stats, XP). Senran Kagura Burst is a second one that had been released in Japan, but as it contains the first game entirely , you're not missing anything.

    The various missions are quite repetitive and only the boss battle bring a little variety. Similarly, the gameplay is not as deep as you can expect since you have only 2 or 3 combos per character (but you do have 5 characters from the start). Adding to this, Senran Kagura is rather easy. Even the bosses don’t put up much of a fight, let alone regular missions. It can’t help thinking it would much more interesting if the use of special attacks was a bit more limited.

    The character design is attractive and reinforced by beautiful anime-style graphics. The anime-like style has no match on the system, outside Ace Attorney 5.(and maybe ever). On the musical side, Senran Kagura is also excellent : the mix between classic Japanese music and modern genres fits perfectly to the game. The one you can hear during the battle vs Mirai is even one of my favorite game music ever. But beyond that, Senran Kagura is also excellent at what it does : fan-service. You do have a lot of eh… how to say this… hum…. well type Senran Kagura on Youtube and you’ll understand soon enough! Paradoxically, the story and the dialogs feel really serious despite being naïve at times. It’s sometimes even brilliant and moving, because it refuses Manicheism and features the idea that bad guy aren’t necessarily bad guy, but merely opposing people with their own reason to fight.

    Not really a sequel, Senran Kagura Burst makes you revisit the story of the first Senran Kagura (SK) from the «bad girls» side. You therefore play as the busty female ninja of Ebijo school, opposed to the (equally busty) heroines of the first game. I’m not sure Marvelous had expected to do a sequel, because the characters of this one don’t really fit in the main role. It impacts the story because it fails to achieve the same coherence we had in SK. It feels more like a sum of individual stories of variable interest.

    Higake as well as the duo Yomi/Ikaruga were great parts, I really like both the story and the gameplay. Homura was fun to play (especially in Crimson mode) but her story was skipped (probably because we already know it from SK). Haruka and Mirai felt really flat imo. I have to stress that, like in the first one, there a LOT of written dialogs. It’s not uncommon to read for half an hour and actually play a 3-minute level. SKB therefore is a light novel as much as a video game.

    The gameplay of Burst is more varied than in first one and combos are smoother than before. A good thing that takes all its flavour in the reshuffled difficulty settings. SK was a somewhat easy game. SKB is really easy too (excluding the side mission which are pretty tough)… until chapter 4 in which difficulty suddenly increases tenfold! The AI that had been queing to get its ass kicked so far now deals considerable damage, and your rivals act as real bosses. Hence you begin to play Senran Kagura for real : making clever use of burst and dash and using your ougi at the right moment is critical to encure victory. Those difficulty spikes might be unsettling, but I liked that extra pressure.

    With 2 decent games in 1, Senran Kagura Burst is definitely worth a try for Japanese games fans. People hungry for fan-service must get it regardless, even if it fades in comparison to the more recent Vita episode.    … Expand
  5. mypianoheadcase
    Feb 19, 2014
    6
    A streets of rage of game rapped in a T&A visual novel. Nobody should be defending this game for being "deep". Its a beat em up with fetch quests. Its pretty fun game to play in small bursts. Thank goodness you can skip the story parts cuz the story is awful, and reads like self-empowerment message and softcore porn lol

Awards & Rankings

48
#48 Best 3DS Game of 2013
23
#23 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2013
28
#28 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62

Mixed or average reviews - based on 27 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 27
  3. Negative: 2 out of 27
  1. GameCritics
    May 21, 2014
    50
    Boobs aside, Senran Kagura Burst feels a bit mediocre—it's not a bad beat-'em-up, but it's not one of the best.
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  2. SpazioGames
    May 19, 2014
    50
    Just as is the case with bras, Senran Kagura Burst has been modeled around the female anatomy. In this case, around the gigantic breast of these Japanese schoolgirls. Removed the itch, the entire apparatus is deflated and what remains is a fast-paced but trivial beat-em-up.
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  3. FNintendo
    Mar 25, 2014
    60
    Senran Kagura Burst is tailored to a very, very specific segment of the audience who will appreciate its peculiar humor. For other parts of the audience, there's the enormously disproportionate cartoonish female breasts, but a game cannot live off that alone. A flawed frame rate that becomes incredibly frustrating at some points and excessive repetitiveness make this a passable offer, to be considered only by those attracted by the game's humor and style.
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